1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to laundry machines, and more particularly to apparatus used in the dispensing of laundry agents of laundry machines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recent automatic clothes washing machines customarily proceed through a sequence of operations or cycles in order to wash, rinse and spin dry clothes. The sequence ordinarily includes a presoak, a first liquid extraction operation, a wash operation, a second liquid extraction operation, a rinse operation, and a final extraction operation.
In order to obtain the most desirable results from these machines, it has been found advantageous to introduce certain additives or agents into the water or liquid used for a particular operation. A prewash agent is normally used in the soak operation, a soap or detergent is normally used in the washing operation and a bleach is often also used in this operation, while rinse agents are added to the rinse water.
In an automatic washing machine, it is desirable that these agents be dispensed automatically. When the dispensing of agents is automatic, the user may load the fabrics to be washed into the wash basket and place the agents into their proper compartments or containers, and the machine automatically completes the cycle of operation. Also, the best results are obtained if some of these various agents are dispensed with liquid so that the additives are metered into the wash basket and evenly distributed rather than being concentrated into a few of the articles.
One such dispensing system for an automatic washing machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,434 assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. As disclosed in that patent, the dispenser is normally latched to the access cover or lid of the laundry machine for movement with the lid in an open position for access to the wash basket for loading fabrics.
The dispenser includes a plurality of compartments for storing treating agents to be dispensed selectively during the prewash, wash and rinse operation and a plurality of liquid inlets arranged to communicate with the compartments. In its operative effective position over the basket the liquid inlets are in a position to cooperate with the oulets of a liquid supply device. A liquid supply device is sequentially controlled to selectively direct liquid into preselected ones of the liquid inlet for mixing liquid with the treating agents being held in the compartments to flush the agents into the wash basket at predetermined times in a cycle of the automatic washing machine.
In such a dispenser as described above, the dilution and flushing of bleach is particularly troublesome because of its propensity to discolor clothes if the bleach has not been properly diluted sufficiently prior to introduction into the basket containing the clothes. It is also desirable to have the diluted bleach dispensed not onto the clothes but rather into the liquid being used for the wash operation. In the dispensing of bleach by the dispensing system disclosed in the above-mentioned patent, bleach is diluted by recirculating water, that is, water that is pumped from the wash tub and then re-introduced back into the tub. The bleach diluting tank is evacuated by a siphon tube, however, one of the difficulties with this arrangement is that recirculation water contains lint or other relatively large contaminants which when introduced into the bleach compartment can clog the siphon and render its operation unusable. Prior art has improved that additive dispensing system by providing a means for diluting the bleach and fushing it from its compartment with fresh liquid and dispensing it into the wash water and not onto the fabrics being washed. Even in this system there is, however, the possibility that after the bleach has been placed in its dispensing compartment the lid of the machine is raised thus allowing some of the bleach to spill out of the compartment and find its way onto the clothes in the basket without being diluted.
By my invention I have improved the prior art additive dispensing systems in that I have provided a means of diluting any such spilled bleach before it comes in contact with the clothes.